First responder wins
For most local services, the first business to respond with a real answer wins a disproportionate share of the work. Customers are not comparison-shopping for days — they call two or three businesses and go with whoever gets back to them first and sounds trustworthy.
The number to watch
Track median time-to-first-response for new enquiries. If it is measured in hours, you are losing jobs you never knew you had. Getting it down to minutes — with a disclosed AI receptionist covering the gaps — is often the single highest-ROI change a service business can make.
Make it visible
You cannot improve what you cannot see. A lead dashboard that timestamps every enquiry and shows who owns the next step turns "we’re usually pretty quick" into a number you can actually manage.